Friday, January 17, 2014

How many of us feel this way? I am hoping quite a few.
With a recent promotion , I was reflecting about has it made me happy or happier rather.
Its been the puzzle for me ever since I realized that earning money cannot be only purpose of life.

When I got into my first job, I really wanted to understand how this industry works. The initial effort of the Industry to pull me into activities like Quality Assurance or Program Management which are the stereotype roles for females in the software Industry were quelled.

At least I am happy that I struck to my stand of exploring the technology world. But once I am in and am able to maneuver and get comfortable, this alone does not seem to make me happy. I love the aspect of being able to think rationally and being able to provide solutions to problems, but sometimes it seems like common sense and nothing extravagant.

To some extent this is the crisis for so many of us who are in the initial thirties, and who are from a typical middle class of developing country like India. Our initial ambition is to have a decent education and then get into a role where we are self sufficient. A lot of my peers are very happy doing what they do and blocking more real estate and stock than they are ever going to enjoy in their lifetime. I feel good atleast about the fact that I have realized quite early that living simple life with basic amenities gives you flexibility and freedom from money-bonding.

Still this is not enough, there are miles to go before you sleep. I have given certain other things a try to see if I get a sense of satisfaction if I do something additional. The whole reason for existence of this blog is because I have always felts writing very thought provocative, reflective and self challenging. Very often when I write these small essays, I realize how a thought in the head is very easy, but how tough it is to express it and to get the right words. This has helped me appreciate the work of the authors and effectively enjoy reading. But still not enough.

I then tried to engage socially, I became a volunteer at Balajanagraha program which is about civic education for school children. For about six to eight months , every saturday we need to visit the school and engage with the kids of eight standard and share with them the challenges of urban development. A very good activity, for all those who keep thinking that after I am forty as a second job, I will become teacher , this is an eye opener. The most challenging part of this is to be able to attract the concentration of the kids for the period of one hour without having to shout, beat or scold them. We have become successful already in making sure to tell our students that good things can be enforced only with stern and strict rules. I finished the second year this time and have realized this is not it either.

Among other things I am trying is to lead a calmer life, go for a walk. One thing to realize is that not one of these can make you satisfied, there needs to be a purpose . Leading a life with a purpose larger than your life is what can make one satisfied, I am still searching for it and he journey will go on.......

In India, we are aligning towards Anti - RRR. With all the
globalization, we have started believing Western is bestone. There is a huge
surge in the way we used to consume and buy products. There are more and more
super markets. More and more foreign products easily available locally, not to
mention the increase in the fast food outlets , especially the ones which have
known to cause obesity out there in the west - the KFCs and MCds.

So instead of reduce we are on the path of increase. The per
capita production of waste in a developing country like India is still much
lesser than the per capita Waste in a country like USA or UK. But while they
are trying to reduce, if we get on the path of Increase, it is much more
difficult to bring in a change in developing country like India.

Reuse ,

The older generation in India is careful about this concept.
I have always seen the old people at home try to think about how to use
something before showing it the path of dust bin. But oflate, people have learnt to throw things off.
A very simple example is how once upon a time, a nice pair of dress in good
condition made of silk would rotate across various cousinssisters in a family. Not anymore, we cannot
think of reuse mostly. We are into the culture of throw and buy new. With more
BigBazaars on our ways, things seem cheaper than earlier, the cost and ease of
availability have made us think reuse as not prestigious.

Recycle

We have a long way to go before we can even say we are
recycling things. Even in the more educated environments like offices,I do not
see waste segregation . At homes people just are not educated enough on
importance of waste segregation. Cartons claim and show recycle symbol but
where are we collecting stuff which can be recycled. Most of these are reaching
landfills and polluting our environments.

Arguably the biggest contributors and the systems which need
to make RRR their principle are the industries. The manufacturing Industry
needs to inculcate the habit of RRR. To make sure the industries do this, the
governance needs to bring in policies. But only when as a society we follow
these can we ensure that it will enter our mainstream politics. Very rarely does
an aspect like this become important agendas for government. Unless the waste
causes breakout of epidemic or causes serious environmental issues, these don’t
even fall in the list of issues the government would look at. Most often, while
discussing these aspects, we feel totally helpless on what we could do. But
things need to start at home. For example one day in a week, decide not to use
plastic at all or say no to outside food atleast once a week or say no to a
certain simple daily usable product which can be prepared more efficiently
indigenously like tooth powder or a soap or a shampoo or a washing dish powder.
It will give us a confidence that we could do something and encourage us to be
creative in our ways.Leading a simple lifewill require us to think creatively. For example, I realized that the
sodium lauryl Sulphate used in tooth powder for getting the froth is not very
good for health. So while I searched for how to prepare toothpowder at home. It
was very simple recipe – Salt, bakingsoda and clove oil . I tried it for a
month , then continued it for a year. I never had any problems. When I made it
next time, I added a few of my own ingredients like Neem powder, Turmeric.
After another six months, I decided to switch my toothpowder to ayurvedic and
am now using Vicco Vajradanti. Similar to this, I rarely use the Shampoo and
even when using , it is mostly ayurvedic. It requires us to change our
lifestyle slightly, but its doable. For all of my friends out their who have
the practice of smoking or drinking, it goes without saying that if we can
change some basic things in our day to day life and see them become better, why
not try leaving the bad practices even if they are once in a while.